Disruptive technologies and diplomacy
Statement of the problem
Technological innovation in social media platforms has eased communication, sharing information globally, and created unlimited possibilities in commerce. The advancement in data sharing and interactions between nations has availed both openings and glitches for public diplomacy. However, the current news release New York Times newspaper headline of “Russian Hacking and Influence in the U.S elections” (Mazzetti & Schmidt, 2021). The Guardian news outlet headline, “Russia targeted Trump allies to hurt Biden in 2020 elections, U.S official says” (Pengelly, 2021). The headlines depict an investigation instigated on the disputed 2016 elections between former president Trump and Hilary Clinton and the recently held elections between Trump and the incumbent president Biden.
The top newspaper headlines depict an increase in cyber-attacks emanating from Russia to interfere with the U.S elections. The allegations trigger diplomatic tensions and suspicion between the U.S and Russia. Disruptive technologies give the new challenge in diplomacy, the credibility crisis. Hacking and interfering with the U.S and other countries’ elections is tantamount to abusing a democratic process and denying civilians their preferred political leader.
Hypothesis
A new diplomatic row between the U.S and Russia started when the United States indicted the kremlin regime led by Putin of hacking Democratic Party presidential aspirant Hilary Clinton’s email and leaking sensitive secrets to the public to aid Republican Party contender Donald trump in the impending 2016 elections. Further, the U.S intelligence agencies depicted that during the 2016 campaign period, Russian agents engaged in an aggressive crusade to undermine the civilian’s faith in the electoral process.
Through social media platforms such as Facebook, the Russian internet research agency (IRA) hacked numerous accounts and assumed false identities to propagate divisive, biased, and inaccurate dissemination of politically polarized opinions to mislead the U.S voters (Galante & Ee, 2018). The election outcome was the win by republican aspirant former U.S president Trump. The research will find out how disruptive technology such as cyber-attacks targeting elections and political figures affects the diplomatic relations between the U.S and Russia.
Analysis
Experts argue that the intention of adopting disruptive technologies to interfere with elections is to preserve their superpower ideologies by weakening the west. The Russian strategy is implemented through a concept termed active measures (Posard et al., 2020). The active measures purpose to instigate covert and overt information dissemination planned by the Russian regime to affect foreign politics and domestic issues as a tool to amass influence. Additionally, the active measures have aided Russian in shaping the global events in the regime’s favor. Specifically, the concept is adopted to undermine the democratic election process in the U.S and numerous countries. Studies have shown that Russian differs from most of the U.S ideologies and foreign policy, often funding the opposing side in armed conflicts, for instance, in North Korea. Furthermore, Russian regimes are opposed to liberalism. Instead, Russian leans towards communism characterized by authorities having a firm grip on the helms of power and civilians possessing limited decision-making.
According to Russian novelist Alexander Doronin, sabotage by fueling conflict circumstances. Specifically, the ones that arouse dissatisfaction and rebellion to the perceived oppressors lead to creating groups that purport to emancipate the oppressed through treachery methods while benefitting the rival (Posard et al., 2020). Relating with Doronin’s analogy, Russian regimes polarize and interrupt diplomatic cohesions by initiating divisive matters. For example, open-source reports designate that the kremlin regime purposes to instigate internal conflict in the U.S by manipulating the delicate immigration policies and racial discrimination topics through partial data in the social media platforms. Primarily targeting radical political movements fighting against police brutality and racial segregation to arouse emotions among the populace, evoke anger and discord.
Additionally, technological innovations aim to destabilize civic confidence in the democratic process, such as elections and democratic institutions like the legislature. Experts describe that active measures are widely implemented in the U.S and Europe to undermine the election processes taking advantage of the lack of familiarity by the citizens in the workings of the democratic institutions. For instance, in the U.S 2016 elections, Russian hackers seem to have endorsed negative publicity against the intelligence agencies’ execution of their mandate, suggesting that they encourage inhumane methods to gather intelligence.
Still, experts allude that digital voter conquest crusades by IRA operatives to discourage African Americans and Latinos immigrants from participating in the election process, convincing them that the U.S government continuously targets them in unlawful arrests and oppresses them economically. Research portrays that feeble and unstable governments have fallen victim to Russian distortion of information. Nations with internal conflicts, weak economies, and political instability are likely to be vulnerable to Russian interference. Research attributes the decline in civilian trust to their respective government and inadequate information to falling victims to negative manipulation.
Adoption of disruptive technology by Russia targeting the U.S intends to cast confusion and generate apathy. In conjunction with several Russian media outlets, IRA operatives strive to disseminate inaccurate information and propaganda to create confusion to foreign nations and the U.S. Edicott suggests that past events depict that Russia is comfortable with propagating falsehood. To make the populace confused, submissive and paranoid, depriving them of thinking critically to fathom truthful and deceitful information (Posard et al., 2020). Research shows that continuous transmission of fabricated news in online platforms and traditional media outlets can give distorted information a degree of legitimacy. Thus, leading to consumer trust and acceptance of the partial data as the new reality.
Disruptive technologies have also contributed to limited face-to-face dialogues due to the invention of technological platforms that allow online conversation among diplomats. Embracing virtual communication has led to the loss of touch in interactions that is a more effective form of communication (Koshkin, 2018). Online communication may hinder direct knowledge of the reality in the ground and limit nations with poor communication to equitably participate in the meaningful bargain.
Furthermore, social media outlets currently determine and possess superior control in a political advertisement. The changes have led to the development of foreign political analytical companies; for instance, Cambridge analytical a British-oriented company. The activities of such companies may be misleading in political activities in foreign countries and lead to biased figures that may not reflect the actual reality in the ground. Creation of conflicts due to the dissemination of data portraying a particular candidate to be decisive in an election. Failing to clinch the political seat may lead to such politicians insinuating that the elections were not faired or marked with irregularities. Online surveys that aim at predicting election outcomes have been attributed to creating election disputes.
Conclusion
The research has vividly described disruptive technologies as one of the challenges negatively impacting public diplomacy. Further, the study has described the tense diplomatic relations between Russia and the U.S instigated by claims of election interference by the Russian side. The study notes that dissemination of inaccurate information and abuse of technological innovations influence decisions in other countries a source of diplomatic friction. Numerous nations ought to adopt strategies that encourage peace and shun interfering with the domestic process of other countries with the intent of interfering with the decision of the civilians. The purpose of technology advancement is to ease the interaction of civilizations and reduce the cost of conducting business. Countries ought to adopt diplomatic strategies that progress tranquility and cordial relations between countries.
References
Galante, L., & Ee, S. (2018). Defining Russian Election Interference: An analysis of select 2014 to 2018 cyber enabled incidents. Atlantic Council, 11, 6.
Koshkin, P. (2018, October 18). RIAC :: Five challenges for modern public diplomacy and how to tackle them. РСМД :: Российский совет по международным делам. https://russiancouncil.ru/en/analytics-and-comments/analytics/five-challenges-for-modern-public-diplomacy-and-how-to-tackle-them/
Mark Mazzetti & Michael s Schmidt. (2021, April 15). Russian Hacking and Influence in the U.S. Election. New York Times.
Martin Pengelley. (2021, March 16). Russia targeted Trump allies to hurt Biden in 2020 election, US officials say. The Guardian.
Posard, M. N., Kepe, M., Reininger, H., Marrone, J. V., Helmus, T. C., & Reimer, J. R. (2020). From Consensus to Conflict: Understanding Foreign Measures Targeting US Elections. RAND CORP SANTA MONICA CA SANTA MONICA United States.
